I would like to share a photo of a manatee. (I was not sure how to soften the glare around her eye without taking away from her whiskers (As always feel free to WS)

This shot was taken in Florida during our trip back North on the Intracoastal Waterway. There are many Manatees in Florida and we see them slowly moving along or in marinas at night. In the evenings, we wash the salt off the boat (this happens every night..YUCK!) and quite often you will look down and see a manatee drinking the fresh water that runs off the boat. To my delight, this female stayed for about an hour. She especially liked to roll over on her back and catch the water (later post) but I wanted you to see her BEAUTIFUL face.

Manatees are endangered because of many reasons (boats, nets, habitat depletion etc. All man made problems. They are so friendly and so slow and somewhat curious.

West Indian manatees are large, gray-brown aquatic mammals with bodies that taper to a flat, paddle- shaped tail. They have two flippers with three to four nails on each, and their head and face are wrinkled with whiskers on the snout.

Manatees can be found in shallow, slow-moving rivers, estuaries, saltwater bays, canals and coastal areas. Manatees are a migratory species. Within the United States, West Indian manatees are concentrated in Florida in the winter, but can be found in summer months as far west as Alabama and as far north as Virginia and the Carolinas.
Manatees are gentle and slow-moving. Most of their time is spent eating, resting, and in travel. Manatees are completely herbivorous. They eat aquatic plants and can consume 10-15% of their body weight daily in vegetation. They may rest submerged at the bottom or just below the surface, coming up to breathe on the average of every three to five minutes.
The reproductive rate for manatees is slow. Female manatees are not sexually mature until five years old, and males are mature around nine years of age. It is believed that one calf is born every two to five years; twins are rare.